A video of Ian McKellen and John Bishop hatching from a giant golden egg on The One Show has been going viral on social media.
As one of the most unpredictable and eclectic shows on British television, The One Show has undoubtedly produced some brilliant – and, more often than not, questionable – moments over the years since it first aired on our screens back in 2006.
Airing each weeknight on BBC One, The One Show is described as a magazine-style show that tackles current affairs and other issues in the UK by using a mix of interviews, topical stories, and features – with regular contributors taking to the big red sofa to present reports on everything from history and wildlife, to consumer affairs, health and medicine, and so much more.
Let’s just say, it’s a variety show in the true sense of the word.
Yet, despite the fact we’ve grown to become fairly unfazed by what happens on the show nowadays, we have to hold our hands up and say we never imagined we’d see the day Sir Ian McKellen and John Bishop hatched from a giant golden egg live on national television.
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A video of this quite frankly bizarre moment has been doing the rounds on social media since it hit our screens last night, and it’s fair to say viewers are baffled by the whole thing.
To briefly sum up what happened in the short nine-second video – which has already racked up tens of thousands of views, and plenty confused comments – presenters Jermaine Jenas and Lauren Laverne are seen standing outside the BBC studios, and without any wider context, Laverne proceeds to announce the pair’s entrance.
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“Crack open the egg… please welcome, Ian McKellen and John Bishop,” Laverne exclaims.
Laverne and Jenas then lend a hand to help one of Britain’s most-revered and beloved actors, and the hugely-popular Liverpudlian comedian step safely out of the giant golden egg.
And that’s it, that’s the end of the video.
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A video of Ian McKellen and John Bishop hatching from a giant golden egg on The One Show has been going viral / Credit: BBC OneViewers have been left completely baffled by the whole thing / Credit: BBC
As hilarious and completely nonsensical as the clipped version of the video is, and while it may not seem like an explanation for it is good enough, there is actually a reason why McKellen and Bishop have been travelling the country inside the giant golden egg, and it’s because the pair are due to star alongside one another in a new pantomime called Mother Goose that’s heading out on a big UK tour.
The pantomime tells the story of Mother Goose and her husband Vic, who run an animal sanctuary and live a wholesome life inside an abandoned Debenhams department store – but the sudden arrival of a goose causes upheaval.
During the launch for the pantomime, it’s actually become a bit of a tradition for McKellen and Bishop to introduce themselves by hatching out the giant golden egg and then posing for photos with co-stars, so even though The One Show viewers couldn’t wrap their heads around it, this isn’t the first time the pair have made this kind of an entrance.
This hasn’t stopped people on Twitter from chipping in with their commentary though.
Popular television critic Scott Bryan – who goes by @scottygb on Twitter – has had a hand in making the short video go viral by sharing it to his 94,000 followers and aptly branding the clip “peak One Show”, which is hard to deny.
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Why is there an egg? Why is Lauren Laverne introducing a drumroll for the egg? Why is Ian McKellan and John Bishop in the egg?
He also then posed a series of questions as a follow-up, which let’s be honest, we were all thinking ourselves – “Why is there an egg? Why is Laverne introducing a drumroll for the egg? Why is Ian McKellen and John Bishop in the egg?”
BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Clare McDonnell also then commented on the video saying: “I walked past that earlier… if only I’d known… how long did they keep them in there?”
“Imagine some cheese induced nightmare where you were trapped inside an egg with Sir Ian McKellen and John Bishop,” another viewer commented.
A fourth person then gave a brilliant analysis on the situation.
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“This is why I love British light entertainment. It really gives you everything you want, even if you never even imagined you wanted Sir Ian McKellan and John Bishop coming out of a giant golden egg,” – and we couldn’t have phrased it any better ourselves.
Featured Image – BBC
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Liam Gallagher says he’s ‘ready’ to make a surprise appearance at the World Cup final
Danny Jones
Liam Gallagher has said that he is “ready” to play at the World Cup final should England make it all the way to the last two later this month.
He may have just been having some fun on social media as usual, but you never know – after all, we never actually thought we’d see him and his brother reconcile, but look how that turned out…
In his words, he may have “Irish blood”, but the Manchester-born Britpop and rock icon has an English heart, and after one person online said it’d only be right for him to fly out for the conclusive fixture if Thomas Tuchel’s side make it all the way, he gave a typically off-the-cuff response:
You could argue there’s not much in this besides an impromptu comment from a famously keyboard-happy lead singer, but stranger things have happened.
For instance, it may have come after a gradually increasing barrage of old tweets, pestering and a bit of positive peer pressure in full view of the public eye, but we did at long last get to witness an Oasis reunion with the ‘Live ’25’ world tour; however surreal it felt, it’s soon set to be relived in a documentary.
This reply comes as a response to LG’s initial post on X, in which he wrote: “It’s hard work that singing Harry Kane cmon ENGLAND cmon WONDERWALL.”
It also isn’t the only time he stoked the fire of this still only pie-in-the-sky idea, either, as after another user similarly asked if he’d fly out and sing it at the final, he simply responded, “Oh I’ll show Harry how it’s done.”
He’s not the only one to have made a rather big public proclamation this tournament, either.
The England and Man United legend set himself up for a fall.
As for the 53-year-old musician, he also jokingly quipped at the expense of those less keen on the idea with just as straightforward a clap-back: “Stop crying your heart out.”
Now, obviously, we’re taking this one with a big pinch of salt (enough to season ‘some lasagneee’, you could say), but who knows? There’s been plenty of big and strange showbiz stuff happening at this year’s competition in North America.
Maybe we all need to just keep tagging the Burnage boys, FIFA, England and the official World Cup page as much and hope for at least some kind of Oasis-centric surprise.
Come on, just imagine how much this would go OFF if even one of the Gallagher brothers was in the crowd, let alone this unthinkable hypothetical…
ITV to be bought out by Sky in transformational British broadcasting deal worth £1.6 billion
Danny Jones
In a watershed moment for British broadcasting, Sky has reached a transformational agreement worth more than £1.6 billion to buy out ITV in a landmark takeover deal.
With Sky already owned by US telecommunications corporation Comcast, this is set to be one of the biggest shakeups in TV and streaming for some time.
Talks actually started last November, but the process to complete a buyout like this has obviously taken a significant amount of time and money already.
It’s also worth noting that the deal is still pending full approval from the relevant regulators; nevertheless, it’s fair to say that it could change the face of the British media giants – who are based here in Greater Manchester over at MediaCity – but might signal a significant overhaul of our media landscape.
The Sky Group have assured there will be no immediate change to popular shows and will not be put behind a paywall at present (for now, anyway), with ITV still under a free-to-air service until 2034 as part of its public licensing contract.
Aquisitons/mergers of this size like this don’t come around very often, at least not across this side of the pond, with the growing Disney’s growing multinational monopolisation being one of the biggest examples of conglomerates mopping up major networks and huge brands over the past decade.
Writing in a statement, Sky said: “The UK media market is undergoing a profound and rapid transformation, and as competition for audiences intensifies, scale matters more than ever in order to compete with global streaming giants and YouTube in the UK.
“Viewers will continue to enjoy the shows they know and love, such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Love Island, I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, This Morning, Loose Women, Lorraine and News at Ten – alongside major live sporting events.”
That lattermost example feels particularly poignant at the moment, as this also means that the likes of ITV’s impressive World Cup coverage will come under the Sky umbrella in the near future.
ITV agrees sale of media and entertainment business to Sky for up to £1.6bnhttps://t.co/UtgO9REejy
It’s being seen as an ambitious attempt to shake up traditional terrestrial telly and digital platforms, with the ‘old guard’, as it were, having to move forward and fast to keep up with the mercurial market becoming evermore dominated by streaming services.
Of course, there are plenty raising questions and concerns over yet another domestic institution becoming deeper and deeper entwined with big American business; on the other hand, former ITV chairman Sir Peter Bazalgette, who still owns shares, says the deal was “essential” for its survival.
ITV will also receive £1.2bn in cash and Sky’s Love Productions business in return for ownership of their media and entertainment arm, whose shows include the Great British Bake Off.
Moving forward, ITV will also get a further £200m in 2028 if they meet revenue targets when it comes to advertising, with Sky promising to spend over £2.1bn on content from ITV Studios over a five-year period. You can read the full update from ITV right HERE.
Emily Sergeant -
20th October 2022 
